Systems and methods for integrating route and rank information into call detaile records

ABSTRACT

The present technology is directed to systems and methods for integrating route and rank information into call detail records. The system receives information relating to a communication that is established between a first communication device and a second communication device. The information includes routing information for the established communication that includes at least a route identifier and a rank identifier. The system records the received route identifier and the rank identifier in a call detail record that is generated for the established communication. The route and rank information may be analyzed to for various purposes including troubleshooting and quality improvement.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/754,562 filed Jan. 30, 2013, the contents of all of which areincorporated herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE TECHNOLOGY

The technology is related to voice over Internet protocol (VOIP)telephony systems, and more specifically, to systems and methods forrecording information about the route that a particular telephonycommunication traverses across a data network.

BACKGROUND OF THE TECHNOLOGY

In the present telecommunication environment, placing calls andtransmitting information between telephony devices is more prevalentthan ever. With the growing number of mobile telephones, communicationnetworks have been continually striving to maintain pace with respect tocost, bandwidth, and communication quality. Call quality is a key factorfor consumers when deciding which provider to subscribe to or over whichnetwork to place a phone call.

In addition to placing calls over a cellular network, consumers are alsopresented with the option of placing calls over a data connection via aVOIP telephony service provider. VOIP telephony service providers nowgive consumers more flexibility in how the consumer can place a phonecall.

When a customer of an IP telephony system wishes to place a call to adestination telephony device, it is usually necessary to establishcommunications between a first gateway or proxy server of the IPtelephony system which communicates with the customer's telephony deviceand a second gateway that communicates with the called or destinationtelephony device. The two gateways communicate with one another to setupthe call between the customer's telephony device and the destinationtelephony device. The setup procedures may include establishing adifferent path through the data network that will be used to communicatedata packets bearing the media of the call. For example, a media relaymay be used to relay data packets bearing the media of the call back andforth between the customer's telephony device and the destinationtelephony device. Thus, various different elements in the data networkcan become involved in establishing and carrying a VOIP call.

When a new call setup request is received from a customer's telephonydevice by a proxy server of an IP telephony system, the proxy servertypically consults a routing table to determine the identity of a proxyserver or a destination gateway that is capable of establishing the callto the called, destination telephony device. The obtained information istypically an IP address of the proxy server or destination gateway,which is the information needed to contact the proxy server ordestination gateway. In fact, the proxy server setting up the call mayobtain a list of a plurality of IP addresses for a correspondingplurality of proxy servers or gateways that are capable of establishingthe requested communication to the called telephony device. The list ofIP addresses is provided in a priority order.

Once the proxy server setting up the call has a list of IP addresses ofcandidate proxy servers or destination gateways, the proxy server sendsa call setup request to the device having the first IP address in thelist, in an attempt to setup the requested call through the firstcandidate proxy server or destination gateway. If the first call setupattempt is unsuccessful, the proxy server setting up the call sends asecond setup request to the device having the next IP address on thelist. This process repeats until the call is established, or until theproxy server runs out of IP addresses to try.

Each time that a VOIP call is placed, a call detail record (CDR) isestablished for the call. The CDR for a call includes various items ofinformation about the call, such as the originating telephone number,the destination telephone number, the time that the call started andended, as well as various other items of information. Typically, theproxy server of destination gateways that are contacted to try to setupthe call will forward items of information to the IP telephony system,and the IP telephony system uses that information to create a CDR forthe call. Once the call is completed, the IP telephony system stores afinal CDR that contains a final set of information about the call.

The information in the final CDRs is used by the IP telephony system forbilling purposes, and in many cases for quality assurance andtroubleshooting. The information in the CDRs may also be used toestablish or adjust the routing tables that are consulted by the proxyservers setting up calls. The CDRs may also be used for various otherpurposes, as is well known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

A CDR for a call may include information that identifies the elements ofthe data network which were used to setup and carry the call. Forexample, a CDR may include the IP address of the proxy server ordestination gateway that was responsible for setting up the call, andpossibly the IP addresses of any media relays that were used tocommunicate data packets bearing the media of the call.

As explained above, during the initial call setup procedures, it iscommon for the proxy server setting up a call to make severalunsuccessful call setup attempts through multiple candidate proxyservers or destination gateways before the call ultimately isestablished between the calling telephony device and the calledtelephony device. While the final CDR for the call may includeinformation identifying the proxy server or destination gateway thatultimately setup the call, the CDR does not presently includeinformation that can be used to determine if other candidate gatewaystried and failed to setup the call before the call was ultimatelysuccessfully established by the gateway identified in the CDR.

Note, CDRs may be established for each unsuccessful call setup attempt.But the CDR which contains information about the successful attempt,when the call was actually conducted, does not include information aboutthe previous unsuccessful setup attempts.

Thus, there is a need to provide information in CDRs that would allow anIP telephony system to determine when proxy servers and destinationgateways are frequently failing to setup requested calls.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a communications environment that can connect aVOIP telephony communication between two communication devices;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a controller that may be used topractice one or more embodiments of the present technology;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a routing table that can be used to obtainthe identity of devices capable of connecting a VOIP telephonycommunication to a destination telephony device;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing some information that may be stored in acall detail record for a telephony communication;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating steps of a method for integratingrouting information into a call detail record;

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating steps of a method of analyzing andadjusting routing information in a routing table;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating elements of a candidate gateway thatcould be involved in setting up a communication to a destinationtelephony device; and

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating steps of a method performed by adestination gateway to forward routing information to a CDR unit of anIP telephony system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, references are made to a telephony device.The term “telephony device” or “communication device” is intended toencompass any type of device capable of acting as a telephony device.This includes a traditional analog telephone, an IP telephone, acomputer running IP telephony software, cellular telephones, mobiletelephony devices such as smartphones that can connect to a data networkand run software applications, such as the Apple iPhone™, mobiletelephony devices running the Android™ operating system, Blackberry™mobile telephones, and mobile telephones running the Symbian® operatingsystem.

Moreover, certain devices that are not traditionally used as telephonydevices may act as telephony devices once they are configured withappropriate client software. Thus, some devices that would not normallybe considered telephony devices may become telephony devices or IPtelephony devices once they are running appropriate software. Oneexample would be a desktop or a laptop computer that is running softwarethat can interact with an IP telephony system over a data network toconduct telephone calls. Another example would be a portable computingdevice, such as an Apple iPod touch™, which includes a speaker and amicrophone. A software application loaded onto an Apple iPod touch™ canbe run so that the Apple iPod touch can interact with an IP telephonysystem to conduct a telephone call.

The following description will also refer to telephony communicationsand telephony activity. These terms are intended to encompass all typesof telephony communications, regardless of whether all or a portion ofthe calls are carried in an analog or digital format. Telephonycommunications could include audio or video telephone calls, facsimiletransmissions, text messages, SMS messages, MMS messages, videomessages, and all other types of telephony and data communications sentby or received by a user. These terms are also intended to encompassdata communications that are conveyed through a PSTN or VOIP telephonysystem. In other words, these terms are intended to encompass anycommunications whatsoever, in any format, which traverse all or aportion of a communications network or telephony network.

The term “call” or “telephone call” is used in the following descriptionfor ease of reference, clarity and brevity. However, the systems andmethods described below which involve handling, routing and terminatingcalls would also apply to systems and methods of handling, routing andterminating other forms of telephony-based communications. Thus, theterms call and telephone call are intended to include other forms oftelephony-based communications.

In some systems and methods embodying the technology, telephonycommunications are effected over a packet-based data network. Signalingthat is conducted in the packet-based data network may be executed usingSession Initiation Protocol (SIP). SIP is a popular communicationprotocol for initiating, managing and terminating media (e.g., voice,data and video) sessions across packet-based data networks thattypically use the Internet Protocol (IP), of which Voice Over InternetProtocol (VOIP) is an example. The details and functionality of SIP canbe found in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request forComments (RFC) Paper No. 3261 entitled, “SIP: Session InitiationProtocol” herein incorporated in its entirety by reference.

SIP establishes and negotiates a session, including the modification ortermination of a session. It uses a location-independent address systemfeature in which called parties can be reached based on a party's name.SIP supports name mapping and redirection, allowing users to initiateand receive communications from any location. Of course, while SIP is apreferred protocol for establishing communications over a data network,other signaling protocols could also be used to perform the invention.

Typically, the systems that generate call detail records (CDRs) and thatmonitor call quality are detached from those that use used to route newcall requests. The present technology relates to integrating routinginformation into CDRs for IP telephony communications. As will beexplained, the information that is incorporated into the CDRs can beanalyzed and used to improve the routing of new call requests.

FIG. 1 depicts a communications environment that can be used toestablish telephony communications between telephony devices. Theelements in FIG. 1 include a first communication device 50 and a secondcommunication device 60. Of course, the example shown in FIG. 1 is notlimited to only first and second communication devices and the systemenvisions communication between a large number of communication devices.

FIG. 1 also shows an IP telephony system 100 capable of establishing atelephony communication between the first communication device 50 andthe second communication device 60 via a data network 120, and one ofGateways A-n. In many instances, the data network 120 is the Internet.However, a private data network could also be used.

The IP telephony system 100 includes a proxy server 102 which receives acommunication setup request from the first communication device 50 andwhich attempts to establish the requested communication between thefirst communication device 50 and the second communication device 60.The IP telephony system 100 may also have a routing engine 104 thatincludes one or more routing tables 104 a. As will be explained ingreater detail below, in the information contained in the routing table104 a is used by the proxy server 102 to help establish the requestedcommunication. In alternate embodiments, the proxy server 102 may have arouting table stored locally, which would eliminate the need to consulta separate routing engine 104.

The IP telephony system 100 can also include a CDR unit 106 forcompiling and storing CDRs. The CDR unit 106 is capable of communicatinginformation to a billing unit 108 that bills for the communicationsprovided by the IP telephony system 100. The CDR unit 106 alsocommunicates with a monitoring unit 110 that can analyze information inthe CDRs for purposes of trouble shooting and analysis.

Each of Gateways A-n is capable of establishing a telephonycommunication with the second communication device 60. Typically, eachgateway will have its own IP address. The IP addresses of Gateways A-nare stored in the routing table 104 a of the routing engine 104.

FIG. 2 illustrates elements of a computer processor 250 that can beincorporated in elements of the IP telephony system 100 to accomplishvarious functions. The IP telephony system 100 could utilize multipleprocessors 250 located at various locations, along with their operatingcomponents and programming, each carrying out a specific or dedicatedportion of the functions performed by the IP telephony system 100.

The processor 250 shown in FIG. 2 may be one of any form of a generalpurpose computer processor used in operating an IP based communicationsystem. The processor 250 comprises a central processing unit (CPU) 252,a memory 254, and support circuits 256 for the CPU 252. The processor250 also includes provisions 258/260 for connecting the processor 250 tocustomer equipment via one or more access point and a data channelprovided by a cellular service provider, as well as possibly one or moreinput/output devices (not shown) for accessing the processor and/orperforming ancillary or administrative functions related thereto. Theprovisions 258/260 are shown as separate bus structures in FIG. 2;however, they may alternately be a single bus structure withoutdegrading or otherwise changing the intended operability of theprocessor 250.

Another form of processor 250 that assists in execution and is otherwisepart of the subject invention is found within one or more of the mobiletelephony devices. Such devices are sufficiently advanced beyond earlygeneration cellular telephones that they contain processors capable ofrunning operating systems developed by device manufactures, as well asthird party applications that are downloaded and installed by users, toperforming a myriad of communications and non-communications orientedtasks.

The memory 254 is coupled to the CPU 252. The memory 254, orcomputer-readable medium, may be one or more of readily available memorysuch as random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM), floppy disk,hard disk, flash memory or any other form of digital storage, local orremote, and is preferably of non-volatile nature. The support circuits256 are coupled to the CPU 252 for supporting the processor in aconventional manner. These circuits include cache, power supplies, clockcircuits, input/output circuitry and subsystems, and the like.

A software routine 262, when executed by the CPU 252, causes theprocessor 250 to perform processes of the disclosed embodiments, and isgenerally stored in the memory 254. The software routine 262 may also bestored and/or executed by a second CPU (not shown) that is remotelylocated from the hardware being controlled by the CPU 252. Also, thesoftware routines could also be stored remotely from the CPU. Forexample, the software could be resident on servers and memory devicesthat are located remotely from the CPU, but which are accessible to theCPU via a data network connection.

The software routine 262, when executed by the CPU 252, transforms thegeneral purpose computer into a specific purpose computer that performsone or more functions of the IP telephony system 100. Although theprocesses of the disclosed embodiments may be discussed as beingimplemented as a software routine, some of the method steps that aredisclosed therein may be performed in hardware as well as by a processorrunning software. As such, the embodiments may be implemented insoftware as executed upon a computer system, in hardware as anapplication specific integrated circuit or other type of hardwareimplementation, or a combination of software and hardware. The softwareroutine 262 of the disclosed embodiments is capable of being executed onany computer operating system, and is capable of being performed usingany CPU architecture.

An example of how a telephony communication is established between thefirst communication device 50 and the second communication device 60will now be described with reference to FIG. 1.

When a user of the first communication device 50 wishes to place atelephone call to the second communication device 60, the user dials thetelephone number assigned to the second communication device 60. Thiscauses the first communication device 50 to send a call setup request tothe proxy server 102 of the IP telephony system 100. The proxy server102 must then identify at least one gateway that is capable ofcompleting the call to the second communication device 60.

In some embodiments, the proxy server 102 consults a separate routingengine 104 to obtain the IP addresses of candidate gateways that arecapable of completing the requested call to the second communicationdevice 60. An entry in a routing table 104 a of the routing engine 104will provide this information. In other embodiments, a routing tablewith this information may be present on the proxy server 102 itself.Typically, the information in the routing table 104 a will include theIP addresses of multiple gateways which are capable of completing therequested telephony communication to the second communications device60. In this example, when the proxy server 102 consults a routing table104 a, the routing table 104 a includes the IP addresses assigned toGateways A-n, each of which is capable of communicating with the secondcommunications device 60.

FIG. 3 shows a diagram of an example routing table 300 which could bestored by the routing engine 104. A copy of such a routing table alsocould be stored locally at the proxy server 102. Each row of the routingtable begins with a pattern of numbers, the numbers corresponding to thetelephone number that a caller would dial to place a call. Each row alsoincludes a series of IP addresses. The IP addresses are the IP addressesof candidate gateways that are capable of completing a call to telephonydevices which have an assigned number which begins with the numeralpattern at the beginning of the row.

For purposes of the following discussion, the numerical pattern at thebeginning of each row is referred to as a “route.” Also, the position ofeach IP address in a row is referred to as the “rank” of the IP address.For example, the first row of the table in FIG. 3 has a route of 70381.The first IP address coming after the route, which is “192.168.1.7,” hasthe rank A. The second IP address, which is “172.143.5.1,” has the rankB, and so forth.

In the example shown in FIG. 3, only ranks A-D are provided. However, agreater or lesser number of ranks may be present in a routing table.Also, in the example shown in FIG. 3, each route includes IP addressesfor ranks A-D. In some routing tables, certain routes may not includethe same number of ranked IP addresses as other routes.

With reference to FIGS. 1 and 3, when the proxy server 102 receives acall setup request from the first communication device 50, the proxyserver 102 consults a routing table such as the one shown in FIG. 3 toobtain the IP addresses of candidate gateways capable of completing therequested call to the second communication device 60. The proxy server102 identifies an entry of the routing table that has a route thatmatches the leading digits of the telephone number dialed by the callingparty. The IP addresses in that entry are the IP addresses of gatewayscapable of completing calls to telephone numbers having the indicatedroute. The proxy server 102 will contact the candidate gateways in therank order when attempting to setup the requested communication.

For example, if the proxy server 102 receives a call setup request fromthe first communication device 50, and the call setup request indicatesthat the number dialed by the user was 703-816-2322, the proxy server102 would select the second entry of the routing table shown in FIG. 3,because that entry has a “route” that matches the leading digits of thedialed number. The proxy server 102 then sends a first call setuprequest to the IP address having the A rank. If that gateway cannotsetup the call, the proxy server sends a second call setup request tothe IP address having the B rank. This process repeats until the call isestablished, or the proxy server 102 has run out of IP addresses. If thecommunication cannot be established via any of the candidate gateways,the proxy server 102 may play a message to the calling party indicatingthat the call cannot be connected at this time.

If multiple ones of the candidate gateways are unable to setup therequested communication, each candidate gateway may have the same reasonwhy it cannot setup the requested communication, or each candidategateway may have a different reason why it cannot setup the requestedcommunication. For example, the first candidate gateway may be unable toaccept any more connections while the second candidate gateway may notbe working properly.

Assuming that the communication is established by one of the candidategateways A-n, information about the communication is ultimately reportedback to the CDR unit 106 of the IP telephony system 100. Suchinformation is typically reported to the CDR unit 106 by the gatewaythat ultimately established the communication to the secondcommunication device 60. If a media relay is used to facilitate thecommunication of data packets bearing the media of the call, the mediarelay may also report information to the CDR unit 106. In someinstances, the CDR unit 106 may actively query one or more of thedevices involved in setting up and carrying telephony communication. Inother instances, the devices involved in setting up and carrying thecommunication may automatically send information about the communicationto the CDR unit 106.

The information reported to the CDR unit 106 can include the identity orthe IP address of the proxy server 102 and the gateway that ultimatelyestablished the communication to the second communication device 60, aswell as the starting and end time of the communication. The identity ortelephone number of the first communication device 50 and the secondcommunication device 60 will be reported to the CDR unit 106. Variousother items of information may also be reported to the CDR unit 106.

FIG. 4 illustrates information that could appear in a CDR that isestablished for a telephony communication. As shown therein, the CDRincludes the originating telephone number of the device that initiatedthe call. The CDR also includes the telephone number of the destinationtelephony device that was dialed by the calling party. The start timeand end time are recorded. Also, the route which was selected from therouting table that was used to setup the call is listed, along with therank of the gateway that ultimately setup the call. The route and rankinformation illustrated in FIG. 4 were not previously recorded in CDRs.However, when this information is included in the CDRs of telephonycommunications, the information can be used for trouble shooting,analysis, and quality improvement, as will be explained below.

In order for the CDR unit 106 to include the route and rank informationin the CDRs which it creates, the information must be reported to theCDR unit 106. Because the CDR unit 106 typically uses informationreported from the gateway that completed the communication to generatethe CDR for the communication, it is necessary for the route and rankinformation first to be communicated from the proxy server 102 to thegateway that completed the communication. This is information that thegateway would not normally have. The route and rank information then canbe reported to the CDR unit 106 by the gateway which established thecommunication to the called telephony device.

One way to inform the gateway of the route and rank information is forthe proxy server 102 to encode this information into the setup signalingthat is sent to the gateway. Each time that the proxy server 102 sends acall setup request to a gateway, the route and rank information would beencoded into unused fields of the setup signaling. The gateway wouldthen have this information, and the gateway could report it to the CDRunit 106, along with other information.

FIG. 5 illustrates steps of a method 500 for integrating route and rankinformation into a CDR. Although not limited to this particularembodiment, the IP telephony system 100 may execute the process shown inFIG. 5. The method begins and proceeds to step S502, where the proxyserver 102 receives a communication setup request from a firstcommunication device 50. In step S504, the proxy server 102 obtainsrouting information for the requested communication. The routinginformation may be obtained from a routing engine 104, or from a routingtable that is stored locally on the proxy server 102. The routinginformation will include the IP addresses of candidate gateways that arecapable of completing the requested communication to the called, orsecond communication device 60. The routing information will alsoinclude the “route”, which is the matched dial pattern for the row ofthe routing table used for this communication.

In step S506, the proxy server sends a communication setup request tothe device having the first IP address it obtained, which is the IPaddress of the first candidate gateway. In step S508 a check is made todetermine if the communication was successfully established through thefirst candidate gateway. If not, the method proceeds to step S510, wherea check is performed to determine if there are any candidate gatewaysleft to try. If not, the method ends. If so, the method proceeds to stepS512, where the IP address for the next candidate gateway in theobtained routing information is selected. The method then loops back tostep S506, and the proxy server 102 sends another communication setuprequest to the device having the IP address selected in step S512. Thisprocess repeats until the communication is established through one ofthe candidate gateways, at which point the method proceeds to step S514.

In step S514, a CDR unit 106 of the IP telephony system 100 receivesinformation about the communication. The information will include the“route” and the “rank” of the gateway that ultimately established thecommunication to the second communication device 60. Finally, in stepS516, the CDR unit 106 creates and stores a final CDR for thecommunication. This would occur after the communication has beenterminated, and when all available information has been received. Thefinal CDR created in step S516 includes the route and rank information.

Note, each time that an unsuccessful communication setup attempt occurs,the gateway what was incapable of setting up the communication may alsoreport information to the CDR unit 106. The CDR unit 106 may create andstore a CDR for each unsuccessful setup attempt. However, the importantpoint is that the CDR which is ultimately established and stored for thesuccessful setup attempt will include the route and rank information.

The monitoring unit 110 can analyze the information contained in theCDRs for purposes of troubleshooting and quality improvement. Some ofthe analyses can use the route and rank information in various ways toidentify potential trouble spots, and to improve the overall functioningof the IP telephony system.

For example, the monitoring unit 110 may review the route and rankinformation in the CDRs created by the CDR unit 106 on a periodic basisto check on how individual gateways are performing. This is done bychecking all CDRs that have a particular route. Specifically, themonitoring unit 110 is looking to determine what ranks are appearing inthe CDRs that all have a particular route.

With reference to FIG. 3, the monitoring unit 110 could review all CDRsthat have a route of “70381641.” This route corresponds to the fourthrow of the routing table 300. The monitoring unit 110 determines whichranks appear in the CDRs that have been established for communicationsthat were completed to this route. If the monitoring unit 110 finds thatonly 10% of all calls to this route include the rank A, that would meanthat only 10% of the calls made to that route were completed by thegateway having the IP address appearing in the “A” rank column of therouting table 300. If the monitoring unit 110 also finds that none ofthe CDRs having route 70381641 have a rank of B, it would mean that thegateway having the IP address in the B rank column of this row of therouting table is not completing any calls. If the monitoring unit 110finds that 85% of the CDRs with the route 70381641 have the rank C, itwould mean that 85% of the calls placed to that route were ultimatelycompleted by the gateway having the IP address in the C rank column ofthis row of the routing table.

With the information developed as explained above, the monitoring unit110 may decide to modify this row of the routing table. For example, themonitoring unit 110 may decide to remove the IP address that waspreviously in the B rank position of the routing table 300, because thegateway with that IP address is not completing any calls. Similarly, theIP address that was ranked C could be moved to the A rank position,because this candidate gateway is successfully completing the majorityof all calls placed to this route. The IP address that was previously inthe A rank position could be moved to the B rank position. Re-orderingthe IP addresses for route 70381641 in this fashion should result incalls to that route being more quickly completed to the dialed telephonydevices, because attempts to place calls through poorly performinggateways would not be made in the first place.

Of course, decisions about how to re-order of the IP addresses in arouting table could be far more complex. Typically, the cost ofcompleting the calls through each of the gateways is taken intoconsideration when determining the ranks of the various IP addresses. Infact, if a first gateway can complete calls to the route for a lowercost than other gateways, the first gateway may be placed in the A rankposition, even through it often fails to successfully establishcommunications to called telephony devices. Thus, the call completionrates through the gateways may only be one of several factors that mustbe considered when deciding how to rank the gateways.

FIG. 6 illustrates steps of a method 600 of reviewing CDRs andre-ordering the information in a routing table based on that review.Although not limited to this particular embodiment, the IP telephonysystem 100 may execute the process shown in FIG. 6.

The method begins and proceeds to step S602 where the monitoring unit110 of an IP telephony system 100 obtains the CDRs for a particularroute. The CDRs that are obtained could be all CDRs for that route for aparticular period of time. For example, step S602 could involveobtaining the CDRs for a particular route that have been recorded overthe last 24 hours. Step S602 could also involve obtaining the CDRs for aparticular route for a shorter or longer period of time.

In step S604 the monitoring unit analyzes the information contained inthe obtained CDRs to make certain determinations. The analysis couldinclude determining the number or percentage of communications that arecompleted through each of the ranked candidate gateways, and thencomparing the results to the order in which the candidate gateways arepresently ranked, as explained above.

In step S606, the results of the analysis are used to make adetermination about whether the routing table should be modified. Asexplained above, this could include re-ordering the candidate gatewaysor removing certain candidate gateways. The object of the modificationto the routing table could be to improve the speed of connection ofcalls placed to the particular route. Alternatively, a modificationcould be made in an attempt to route more calls through a particularlyreliable gateway, or one which offers high call quality. Themodification may also be intended to reduce costs by routing more callsthrough a gateway which is inexpensive to use. Other factors may also beconsidered when determining whether and how to modify a routing table.

If the result of the determination in step S606 indicates that nomodification should be made, the method ends. If the determination madein step S606 indicates that a modification to the routing table shouldbe made, the method proceeds to step S608, and the modification to therouting table is performed. The method would then end.

The method illustrated in FIG. 6 is performed to analyze the CDRs for aparticular route that were generated over a particular period of time.The method would be performed again to analyze the CDRs that weregenerated for a different route over another particular period of time.

Also, the method illustrated in FIG. 6 might be performed multiple timesfor the same route, and during each performance, the CDRs for that routethat were recorded over a different period of time would be analyzed.For example, the method could be performed a first time for CDRsgenerated over the last 24 hours, and a second time for CDRs generatedover the last week. The relative results of the analysis performedduring for the different periods of time are then taken into account indetermining whether and how to modify the routing table.

For example, the analysis of the CDRs for a particular route mayindicate that one candidate gateway performs well Monday through Friday,but performs poorly on Saturday and Sunday. With this knowledge, therouting table may be adjusted to give the IP address of that gateway arelatively high rank on Monday through Friday, but a relatively low rankon Saturday and Sunday. Thus, the ranking of IP addresses for aparticular route may change based on the day of the week. The ranks ofthe IP addresses for a particular route may also change based on thetime of day, or based on other time varying factors.

As explained above, information that is reported to the CDR unit 106 isused by the CDR unit 106 to create a final CDR for each communication.As also explained above, the route and rank information is reported tothe CDR unit 106 by at least one of the devices involved in setting upand carrying a communication.

FIG. 7 illustrates elements of a gateway 700 which could be used to helpsetup a communication to a destination telephony device. FIG. 7illustrates steps of a method 800 that would be performed by the gateway700 to report the route and rank information to the CDR unit 106 of anIP telephony system 100.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the gateway 700 includes a receiving unit 702that would receive a call setup request from a proxy server. Anextraction unit 704 of the gateway 700 would extract route and rankinformation from the call setup request. A transmission unit 706 wouldsend the extracted route and rank information to a CDR unit of an IPtelephony system along with the other information that is normallyreported to the IP telephony system.

The method illustrated in FIG. 8 begins and proceeds to step S802 wherea receiving unit 702 of the candidate gateway 700 receives a call setuprequest from a proxy server 102 that is attempting to setup a call to adestination telephony device 60. As explained above, the route and rankinformation is encoded in the setup signaling received from the proxyserver 102.

In step S804, the extraction unit 704 of the candidate gateway 700extracts the route and rank information from the setup signaling. Then,in step S806 a transmission unit 706 of the candidate gateway 700 sendsthe extracted route and rank information to the CDR unit 106 of an IPtelephony system 100. The route and rank information may only be sent tothe CDR unit 106 if the candidate gateway is successful in establishingthe requested communication to the destination telephony device 60.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Asused herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended toinclude the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicatesotherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises”and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify thepresence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of oneor more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,components, and/or groups thereof.

While the invention has been described in connection with what ispresently considered to be the most practical and preferred embodiment,it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to thedisclosed embodiment, but on the contrary, is intended to cover variousmodifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit andscope of the appended claims.

1. A method performed by a gateway for communicating route and rankinformation for a telephony communication to a CDR unit of an IPtelephony system, comprising: receiving a communication setup requestfrom a server of an IP telephony system; extracting a route identifierand a rank identifier from the communication setup request; and sendingthe extracted route identifier and rank identifier to a CDR unit of anIP telephony system.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein said extractingcomprises extracting the route identifier and rank identifier from atleast one header field of at least one data packet bearing thecommunication setup request.
 3. The method of claim 1, whereinextracting the route identifier comprises extracting a pattern of digitscorresponding to at least a portion of a telephone number thatcorresponds to the destination telephony device.
 4. The method of claim1, wherein multiple IP addresses are associated with the routeidentifier, and wherein each of the multiple IP addresses is associatedwith a corresponding rank identifier.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinextracting the rank identifier comprises extracting an identifier whichis indicative of a position of an entry in a row of a routing table thatcorresponds to the extracted route.
 6. The method of claim 5, whereinthe position of an entry is a position of an IP address of the gatewayin the row of the routing table.
 7. A system that communicates route andrank information for a telephony communication to a CDR unit of an IPtelephony system, comprising: means for receiving a communication setuprequest from a server of an IP telephony system; means for extracting aroute identifier and a rank identifier from the communication setuprequest; and means for sending the extracted route identifier and rankidentifier to a CDR unit of an IP telephony system.
 8. The system ofclaim 7, wherein multiple IP addresses are associated with the routeidentifier, and wherein each of the multiple IP addresses is associatedwith a corresponding rank identifier.
 9. A system that communicatesroute and rank information for a telephony communication to a CDR unitof an IP telephony system, comprising: a receiving unit that receives acommunication setup request from a server of an IP telephony system; anextraction unit that extracts a route identifier and a rank identifierfrom the communication setup request; and a transmission unit that sendsthe extracted route identifier and rank identifier to a CDR unit of anIP telephony system.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the extractionunit extracts the route identifier and rank identifier from at least oneheader field of at least one data packet bearing the communication setuprequest.
 11. The system of claim 9, wherein the extraction unit extractsa pattern of digits corresponding to at least a portion of a telephonenumber that corresponds to a destination telephony device.
 12. Thesystem of claim 9, wherein multiple IP addresses are associated with theroute identifier, and wherein each of the multiple IP addresses isassociated with a corresponding rank identifier.
 13. The system of claim9, wherein the extraction unit extracts an identifier which isindicative of a position of an entry in a row of a routing table thatcorresponds to the extracted route.
 14. The system of claim 13, whereinthe position of an entry is a position of an IP address of the gatewayin the row of the routing table.